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Cover Story

Two Years, Two Boats, Too Bad for New York

by Frank Parlato

This Sunday the Maid of the Mist takes its last cruise of the season, signaling the end of summer for Niagara Falls residents and businesses. Tour boats are pulled from the lower Niagara River to be stored on dry docks.

News Feature

Glys Gala

by Anthony Chase

The mission of Gay and Lesbian Youth Services, better known as “GLYS,” is “to provide an accepting environment to enhance the personal growth of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in Western New York. GLYS advocates for community awareness and acceptance of young people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.”

News Feature

Elections are Rigged

by Paul Wolf, ESQ.

Sadly our election process is a rigged game where an incumbent losing is a rare event. In most years incumbents win 90 plus percent of the time, with one or two losing. Tuesday’s election with few contested races and a record low turn-out was a 100 percent success for incumbent politicians in the City of Buffalo, Erie County and Niagara County.

Travel

AV's literary columnist tells us about her trip to China

by Heather Cook

The Beijing Capital Airport (PEK)—extravagantly silver, modern and polished— was an inaccurate first impression of China. On the crowded Airport Express, the gray haze smothering striking views of China’s countryside, from the Airport into Beijing’s city center, was a disappointing sight. It’s the price they pay for rapid development, unfortunately. I kept thinking my glasses were dirty, frequently wiping them on my sweater—the habit stuck with me for a few days.

Puckstop

Sabres Debut at Brooklyn's Barclay Center

by Andrew Kulyk and Peter Farrell

If you were watching this past Sunday, you saw the Buffalo Sabres come from behind to score twice in the third period, with goals from Matt Moulson and Sam Reinhart, to beat the New York Islanders 2-1 down on the island. Goalie Linus Ullmark notched his second straight win for the team, and Coach Dan Bylsma was grinning ear to ear with Buffalo’s solid effort.

Upon Further Review

Be Careful What You Chant For

by Dave Staba

I’m seven years old, sitting in the lower bowl of Rich Stadium, along the visitors’ sideline, attending my first professional football game with my father.

Tap This

As the temperature drops, beer varieties flourish

by Erik Wollschlager

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us. The clocks have properly been set back. The last echoes of “trick-or-treat” have faded into the pervasive darkness. The first flakes of the dreaded ‘s’ word have tumbled down, only to melt on a waiting toddler’s tongue. Armed with only a shovel and a will to survive, Buffalo prepares to battle the demons of cold, darkness, and the dreaded seven foot monster that is lake effect.

What's Brewing?

Presented by Consumer Beverages

by Erik Wollschlager and Chris Groves

Despite current the here-and-gone again nature of the cold weather Buffalo knows so well, winter is indeed on its way—let us not forget, just three weeks from now, we celebrate the anniversary of Snowmageddon, when the southern half of the city and its surrounding suburbs were buried under house-high piles of snow.

Art Scene

Endgame

by Jack Foran

The deeper the white man went into Africa, the faster the life flowed out of it...vanishing in acres of trophies and hides and carcasses. —Peter Beard

Classical Music Notes

Ukulele Wizard at the BPO

by Jan Jezioro

Music director JoAnn Falletta returns to the podium for this weekend’s Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s concerts on Saturday (11/7) at 8pm and Sunday (11/8) at 2:30pm. The concerts will feature the BPO debut of ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro as the soloist in Byron Yasui’s Ukulele Concerto, a new work commissioned by the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra which was composed especially for him.

Film Review

Labyrinth of Lies

by Liana Vardi

Labyrinth of Lies, now playing at Flix Superplex, has much to recommend it. The movie is based on real events (in this instance without need of quotation marks): the first German war crimes trial in 1963-5 of SS who worked at Auschwitz. Unlike the famous Nuremberg trials of 1945-9 or that of Adolf Eichmann in 1962, this event has not entered collective memory.

Film Review

Spectre

by Jordan Canahai

James Bond is back with a vengeance in Spectre, the 24th film in the legendary spy franchise, as well as the fourth (and possibly last) to star Daniel Craig as 007.

Film Review

Victoria

by Liana Vardi

Victoria has already won eleven awards for German director Sebastian Schipper, cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, and the two lead actors Laia Costa and Frederic Lau. Reviews have everywhere been stunning and the film was quickly snapped up by international distributors. The gimmick, if one wishes to call it that, is that it was shot in a single take (at 22 locations), so what unfold over 137 minutes occurs in real time.

Theater News

Stagefright

by Javier

British stage star Mark Rylance (pictured above) is getting raves for his performance in Steven Spielberg’s film Bridge of Spies. Rylance won the Tony award last year for his performance in the all-male production of Twelfth Night directed by Tim Carroll who will become artistic director of the Shaw Festival next year. Rylance made his Broadway debut in 2008 (and won another Tony) in the comedy Boeing, Boeing, which also starred the fabulous Christine Baranski.

Featured Events

See You There!

AV Hit List: Top Event Picks for This Week

Listings

On The Boards Theater Listings

Movie Listings (Friday, November 6 - Thursday, November 12)

Film Now Playing

Get Lit

Liquor & Letterpress

by Heather Cook

The Western New York Book Arts Center (WNYBAC) presents an opportunity to understand the letterpress at Liquor & Letterpress, a fundraiser to benefit programming at WNYBAC. The interactive event is to be held on Saturday (11/7) from 6—9pm at 468 Washington Street in downtown Buffalo.

Graphic Traffic

"Batman: Earth One, Volume Two" and "Kingdom Come"

by Gabriel Allandro

In case you missed the 2012 debut of Batman: Earth One, don’t fret: you’ve got another chance with Volume Two. The Batman: Earth One series of graphic novels reimagines the Dark Knight at the beginning of his journey to become a legend. This second volume, timed six months after the events of the first volume, takes place in the aftermath of the mayor’s death.

Offbeat News

News of the Weird

by Chuck Shepherd

Stories surface regularly about a hospital patient declared dead but who then revives briefly before once again dying. However, Tammy Cleveland’s recent lawsuit against doctors and DeGraff Memorial Hospital near Buffalo, New York, reveals an incident more startling.

Horoscopes

Free Will Astrology

by Rob Brezsny

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Is it possible to express a benevolent form of vanity? I say yes. In the coming weeks, your boasts may be quite lyrical and therapeutic. They may even uplift and motivate those who hear them.